Plan
your own
speed
date

DateNova Is a
website aiming to
change the
dating scene

By ALLISON HAYES

ancouver has a new dating

\ / platform on the market, one

that helps hone in on all of

our tools to meet people in the city,
with a touch of DIY.

DateNova allows users to set up
their own speed-dating event. The
site allows users to create their
own speed dates by inviting their
matches from other dating apps
to meet up and go on a speed date.
It can be done anywhere, and they
can coordinate everyone involved
through website invitation.

Eric Hennessey, a systems engi-
neer and serial entrepreneur who
just launched DateNova, said the
benefit of doing a DIY speed date is
choosing the people who are there,
instead of spending time with com-
plete strangers, and not needing to
spend long periods of time with
someone if there’s no connection.

“You get a good sense very
quickly, as soon as five seconds of
who you don't want to have a date
with,” Hennessey said. “After you've
already built this time establishing
a connection, now you have to be
social with someone youre prob-
ably never going to see again, in
certainly not a romantic context.”

Eddy Baller, dating coach at
Conquer & Win, said this method
of dating could work depending on
if there’s a genuine connection be-
tween people.

“It depends how you connect
with another person, because you
could be in a crowded market,”
Baller said. “If you really feel some-
thing for a person everything else
just kind of disappears.”

Jason Brown, a recent UBC PhD
graduate, uses dating apps and
said that he prefers the way dat-
ing works now, and wouldn't like a
group date setting.

“T think online dating is good for
those interested in any direction, it
shows much more of an egalitarian
situation, it’s good for introverts,”
Brown said. “You can kind of layout
your intentions, it’s ideal for me the
way it is.”

Receive a mini-date invitation
from an online admirer, or join an
event

Invite a few more people to have
mini-dates with you at the event

Choose your specific meeting
times and places

Bring your best self and have fun

DATENOVA.COM

Andrew Benton, co-owner of Benton Brothers Fine Cheese, helps customers at the Kerrisdale location. MYRA DIONNE PHOTO

Crucial enzyme causes debate over label transparency

By MYRA DIONNE

heesemakers and _sci-

entists disagree about

whether or not cheese

should be labelled GMO.
According to the Dairy Research
Institute, over 90 per cent of cheese
in the U.S. is made with a modified
version of rennet, which is needed
to turn milk into cheese. Tradition-
ally cow rennet is used, which is
taken from the stomach of a calf.
It is now made with a lab grown
duplicate of animal rennet without
sacrificing the animal, according to

Potvin does not feel that this is
a genetic modification of cheese,

Gabriel Potvin, a UBC expert in
chemical and biological engi-

neering. (Wee, because the enzyme has not
“(Scientists] isolated that | ** | changed.
information and transferred it Ste David Asher, founder of

to microorganisms like yeast
or bacteria or fungi,” Potvin
said. “This is a process called

fermentation. We grow mi- “
croorganisms and those
microorganisms use the
information that do

come from a cow first to

assemble those amino acid
blocks into proteins that have that
effect.”

cme ol The Black Sheep School of
= “ Cheesemaking, said he consid-
6S ers commercial cheese a GMO
tie product, because any cheese
using this method can't be
labelled as organic.

“To me it's incredibly
frustrating because there's
no question of it being a prod-
uct of genetic modification,” Asher

said. “The use of that technology

of genetically modified rennet [in
organic cheese] is forbidden be-
cause it is believed to be genetically
modified but according to the food
industry this is not considered a
GMO.”

Emma Davison, a local cheese-
maker and co-founder of Golden
Ears Cheesecrafters, said cheese is
a matter of personal preference and
the best way to know what’s in it
is to talk to a cheesemaker directly.

“We do several farmer’s markets
downtown. We're always welcom-
ing people to come and ask ques-
tions,” Davison said.

Zero waste movement growing

In the first of our
S-part series on
zero waste, con-
sumers seek to
reduce packaging
By LISA TANH
eople are looking for a new
Pp»: to help the planet, and
one way they're doing that is
by going waste free.
Although the way grocery stores

are currently set up is more con-
venient, some

people are turn- “ pretty easy for

ing to waste I became very everyone to get

free shops to do on board with.”

their part for the aware of how many Sharon Esson, ai ay . OOD
environment. things Lhave that a Nada ‘convert’ JUS! TU
For customers . on said she is new

looking to re- are in plastic. to the concept of

duce their waste,
there are shops
where the products are offered
without packaging, and in order to
buy something, containers must be
brought in from home.

Linh Truong, co-owner of The
Soap Dispensary and Kitchen Sta-
ples, a local package-free store that
offers soaps, beauty products and
raw ingredients, said the zero waste
movement is growing in popularity.

— SHARON ESSON, NADA ‘CONVERT’

“The awareness of waste is in the
news, in the media and in docu-
mentaries. All kinds of stories are
coming out,” Truong said. “People
are understanding the need for it
and it’s just becoming so much
more urgent.”

Brianne Miller, founder of Nada,
a package-free pop up that offers
bulk dry goods, baked goods, clean-
ing supplies and alternatives to
single-use plastic disposables said
she believes there has been growing
interest in the store because people
are starting to think more about the
affect of their consumption.

“With a relatively small change
in your behaviour, you really can
collectively have a big impact on
the environment,” Miller said. “It's

something that's

zero waste, but
that she started
trying to reduce her waste by using
a metal water bottle, and coffee cup.

“The thing that caught my atten-
tion was the stainless steel straws
because I've read stories about how
bad the plastic ones are,” Esson
said. “I became very aware of how
many things I have that are in plas-
tic, that I go and buy another one
and another one.”

Bénédicte Jeulin, Nada volunteer working at the waste free pop up on Oct. 28.
LISA TANH PHOTO